Choosing a ‘green’ laptop

We all need to play our part in moving towards a ‘greener’, more sustainable lifestyle. This covers every part of our daily lives, including work. I’m in the market for a new laptop, so I’ve decided to try to go green and I’ve been researching my options.

I’m not a computer expert but I am technically minded, so I’ve been hunting down information that strikes a balance between the two. I thought I’d share these with you, in case they can help you too.

What I’m looking for

Firstly, my considerations:

• I have a limited budget (as far as laptops go) but realise I might have to pay a bit more to meet the environmental standards I’d like (which, by the way, I’ve only identified by reading the following articles – my initial standard was, well, ‘better’).
• The majority of my clients are corporate and are therefore using Windows. My new laptop needs to be compatible with the technology my clients use.
• I don’t just want the ‘green’ offering from a company that’s targeting that area of the customer market. It’s no good if it otherwise falls down on its other products, or fails to be a ‘good corporate citizen’.
• (Yes, it falls in with ‘corporate social responsibility’, which I know lots of people are sceptical about. But customer demand drives business strategy, and if this is towards a more community-focused one, then that’s a good thing in my mind.)

Sources of information

I don’t think these are too much to ask of a modern organisation. So, on to the sources I’ve been using to help me make my choice:

• The Greenpeace Green Electronics Survey, December 2008 (PDF) (this was my starting point, which suggests Apple and Toshiba should be considered)
• ‘Does Apple really have the greenest notebooks?‘, InfoWorld
• ‘Are green IT premiums worth the cost?‘, InfoWorld
• The Green Electronics Council’s EPEAT website, which provides searchable criteria to help businesses choose electronic products ‘based on their environmental attributes’.

Trusting what I read

I’m not going to pretend that this is a particularly scientific piece of research, but I’m simply doing my best to make a decision based on the information available to me. I think this is how many members of the public would try to make their choice, and they’re the ones who will be buying much of the technology.

Do you know of any good articles or have any words of wisdom to share that will help me to make the right choice (for now)? If so, please share them below. Otherwise, stay posted – I’ll let you know which I decide on and my reasons why.

A local domain name is important

Nomensa reports that ‘the .co.uk domain name is now an essential part of a company’s brand presence in the UK’, according to research by Sedo (a global domain name marketplace, funnily enough).

I’m not that surprised, really. For many global companies, for example, a regional domain name is a key part of their localisation strategy.

Inspires trust and creates credibility

The Nomensa article goes on to say that ‘the research, undertaken at Internet World 2009 revealed that two thirds of respondents said the domain extension inspired trust and security in a website’s credentials. In addition, 45 per cent of respondents highlighted that .co.uk was their primary domain’.

You’ll notice that this website’s domain name is .co.uk too, which was a deliberate choice on my part. I freelance from Spain and I felt sure that a .es domain name would put some potential clients off, rightly or wrongly (well, wrongly in fact).

Also, I think (correct me if I’m wrong) but .co.uk sites rank more highly in an English-language search than .es, for example. This is important, because my target audience is still the UK market. Once I translate my site into Spanish, I’ll register it with a .es domain for the same reasons.

.com still popular though

‘What about .com?’, you’re asking (maybe). Apparently, it ‘remains the most popular domain extension overall, with 80 per cent of businesses using .com [as] their web address’.

Again, people perceive this in different ways too; for me, .com leads to the impression of a large company or a global organisation. So, even if .com had been available (it isn’t) for my site, I’d still have chosen .co.uk.